Why the Increased Harvest at Galbraith?

If you’ve been up to Galbraith Mountain recently, you’ve likely noticed the increase in harvest activity. Indeed, the timber harvest has intensified for a couple of reasons:

1) Timber demand due to the impacts of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma

Lumber is one of the key commodities that sees large increases in demand following a natural disaster. Timber becomes critical in the recovery effort of communities impacted by weather events such as those seen in the southern U.S. this past summer. This need reaches as far as our little corner of the USA. With the timber market as hot as it is, harvesting efforts have been increased to meet this demand.

2) Laminated Root Rot

Several months ago, it was discovered that many of the tree stands around Checkpoint Juliet are infected with a disease known as Laminated Root Rot (LRR). LRR is a particularly insidious disease, as it spreads from one root system to the next and eventually renders its host tree dead and thus, unmarketable. Infected trees are being harvested now before the root rot fully spreads. Ideally, the timber being harvested would have had several more years to grow, however now that the LRR has spread, many of the tree stands will not survive to see their full growth potential.

Galbraith Tree Farm has an active 15-Year Timber Harvest Plan from which the 50 acres/year sustainable harvest amount was averaged. Due to increasing the timber harvest on the front end of this 15-year plan, this means less timber will be taken in the coming years. We thank you for your continued understanding, and as always please feel free to reach out with questions.